About the Editor

Carlos da Silva Campos.

Professional journalist, with background on the economical press and Packaging Editor since 1982, heading independent magazines REVIPACK (packaging), REVIPLAST (plastics) and REVIPROJECT (automation).
Lawyer since 1984 and and Packaging Consultant since 1986, working for several industry associations related to packaging and recycling. Honorary Member of IPPO - the International Packaging Press Organisation. Served as Vice-President (1996-1999) and Chairman (1999-2002).

The international meeting MeetingPack 2017 will be held on 30 and 31 May in Valencia (Spain). It is organized by AINIA CENTRO TECNOLÓGICO and AIMPLAS and it will bring together more than 300 experts in food plastic packaging from different countries.

The event brings together the whole food packaging value chain. Big food multinationals, packaging, materials and packaging equipment manufacturers, as well as representatives of the distribution sector and other agents, such as public managers that plan the management and control policies in Europe, experts in food legislation and technologists will attend the event. Some of the companies that have already confirmed the attendance are UBE, Dow Chemical, Repsol, M&G and Danone.

This edition focuses on the topic «Convenience: Driving Barrier Packaging Innovation», where the big global technologic challenges in this field will be discussed, challenges like barrier materials, new manufacturing and packaging systems, sealable and reclosable materials, additive manufacturing, industry 4.0, sustainable packages and recycling, active packages and advances in quality test and control. To see the programm of MWEETINGPACK 2017, click HERE.

Packages, in particular with barrier material, play a current and future demand-driven key role of the convenience requirement of European consumers and the challenge of overcoming the food waste or the need of increasing the shelf life of products and the food safety.

Furthermore, it coincides with the event Made From Plastic 2017, which had more than 100 exhibitors and 3,500 visitors in its last editions.

Transparent barrier films are replacing traditional materials such as flexible foil for various applications due to consumer demand for packaging transparency, feasibility and use of metal detectors and microwave ovens. According to The Future of Transparent Barrier Films versus Barrier Foil to 2021 – a new report from Smithers Pira, global demand for transparent barrier films is forecast to grow at an annual average rate of 3.9% reaching 1.9 million tonnes in 2021. Apparent consumption of flexible aluminium foil packaging is expected to increase at an average annual rate of 2.5% per year reaching almost 3.0 million tonnes by 2021.

A transparent plastic can for canned food, oxygen absorbers that increase the food shelf-life and bags to pack wine or oil are some of the innovations lunched during MeetingPack2015, the packaging conference held in Valencia from 25th to 26th of February.

Kortec has launched a transparent plastic can that can be used for packaging food that used to be packaged in metallic cans. They permit to keep the food shelf-life up to five years.

Absorbers

In Europe 95 kg of food are wasted per person per year, five times more than in Japan. One option for increasing the shelf-life of sensible-to-oxygen-action packaged food is through the incorporation of oxygen scavengers, as Mitsubishi has done, capable to remove the remaining oxygen from inside the packages, in order to avoid the oxidation reactions that damage food and increase the shelf-life in a healthier way. The oxygen scavengers can be included as extern agents to the package, as labels or little bags inside. This kind of technology is really used in Japan because of its oxidation prevention qualities, changes of food colour, but it is not so extended in Europe. One of the advantages of oxygen scavengers is that they do not need additional industrial equipment to use these technologies. It also prevents the oxidation of oils and fat, so a better preservation of the nutritional qualities of the food is obtained.

The European converted flexible packaging business had a global consumption of 3,8 million tonnes of substrates, and worth more than EUR 21 thousand million, according to AMI (Briston, UK) estimates. In a special report including the profile of the major 50 companies in this sector, AMI says that previous figures were under-estimated.

Launched in 2011, the ideia is still regarded as a novelty: to make pack and sell a pizza wuth the shape of an…ice cream. M.E.G.I.C. Pizza (Italy) holds the patent. Hasta La Pizza is a pizza with a chopstick, individual dose, sold in a flexible pack, similar to ice cream pillow packs. Can be heated in the grill, oven or, better of all, in a toaster. Two minutes and its ready to eat. The 60 g unidose concept solves some of the convenience issues, turning pizza more practical ans nomadic for the multiple take away applications.

The new COEX BUBBLE™ line will be demontrated by Torninova (Perugia, Italy) during a "open house" show from 29 to 31 january. With maximum production speed of 135 m/mim, and a output of 1250 kg/h, this new line works with a new and patented twin-screw system and produces bubble wrap film with 10 layers, including a polyamide barrier layer. Acording to Torninova, the new big line has the ability to produce 30 g/m2 bubble wrap with 100% recycled material. Raw materials with extremely different melt indexes can be mixed thanks to the new patented twin-screw extruder technology. Another feature is the new TRIPLEX winder, with full automatic core loading, the ability to produce coreless rolls in line and to switch from core to coreless without sopping the machine. Bubble wrap films, with large and diverse applications, can be coextruded and formed at high speeds, while keeping bubble resistance and roundness. The new COEX BUBBLE™ has its cast cylinders placed between the die lips and forming cylinder.

The BOPP film industry continued to show robust growth during 2011 with demand advancing by 5.5% compared with 2010 to top 6 million tonnes for the first time according to the latest report on the global BOPP film market from AMI Consulting. Demand growth was slightly down on 2010 which had been the bounce back year from the financial crisis for most markets around the world.